Switch It Up

While many out there patiently wait for the winter to bugger off and the warm days of summer to come back, there are those of us who just need our fishing fix. Wet, cold, windy and almost verging on horizontal sleet won't keep us off the river. An unquenchable appetite to be out there are more than enough of a remedy to make the shittiest day weather wise more than worth it. Add a good pair of dry waders, a decent jacket and a big switch rod to haul a few big flies across the river countless times and you get a pretty good picture of what you will encounter with us.

These big switch rods have really opened up a new world of fishing for us. Initially it was explored with eyes set firmly on the big wild waters of North America as a destination but once we slogged through a few days of learning from each other, a broken rod (mine) and no short amount of flies embedding themselves in us we realised the potential here. It's not that it's a new style of fishing, it's far from it in fact, as it originated in Scotland some time in the 1800's. It's more the fact that it is hardly utilised as an effective method of fishing here in New Zealand.

There are plenty of decent sized rivers here that are perfect for such fishing. The Tongariro being the prime candidate. Its fish come up in big schooling runs from lake Taupo the same as steelhead runs come up from the sea during the right conditions. It has a fair amount of swift current and very good pools where fish are likely to congregate, making for good amount of high percentage fishing water.

The thing is though, that these fish see day in day out see a massive coloured blob float over their heads, invariably followed by a large and rather heavy piece of metal covered in all sorts of colours and dead animal bits. These flies are generally very similar and believe it or not there is generally another mini me of the same fly trailing by later. Be it that or a Globug. Certainly don't get me wrong here. I'm not bagging this set up as it has probably caught more fish than any other in the river but fish certainly will see it as a bit of a warning.

So try change your techniques up a bit. Swing a fly downstream. Give the big two handed rods a good crack and let the heavy nymph set up have a bit of a well earned rest every now and then. I'm sure that the same thing has been said before but that doesn't matter a whole bunch. There is just no harm in trying something totally different and new. You might love it.

Anyway, upon my travels of the internet and its plethora of fantastic fish porn, this video keeps getting watched so may as well put it up here. Enjoy this sweet little video of some pretty awesome fishing maybe with a glass of some good quality scotch to keep the belly and soul warm against the winter.

Winter Isn't All Bad

Well apart from not doing much on here in the past few days, unfortunately we haven't doing much fishing either.  A lot of local rivers are closed and the ones that aren't are water logged and blow out with the slightest amount of rain so that doesn't help much at all.

This being said, most lakes are open to shore fishing and the Taupo fishery has fired over summer so should be looking good for the winter spawning runs. Best thing to do before heading for a fish is to check the river levels and how much they have fluctuated over the past few days to week (depending on the river). The best place to check this is on the local council website for the area. They generally have a link to river level monitors in the area.

Once you can be sure that the river will be at least fishable, jump in the car and fang it to the river. Fish every run and riffle you can find and use brighter flies if the water is at all coloured up, orange being the most popular this time of year. Nymphing will be the most popular method for most people but be sure to have a few streamer patterns in the fly box to lure those big trout out of the depths. Either take weighted streamers or use a sinking leader/end of line of some sort.

While the lack of fishing has kept me inside, I have tied a ton of flies of all shapes and sizes and hopefully one of these hideous creations manages to hook a nice big fatty! Also there has been a fair bit of unused footage to pour through so I have chucked together a little mash-up clip of our last trip out for the regular season.
Just a bunch of mucking around and we managed a few fish so it was tops.






It's not much but it makes me feel better than leaving the footage sitting on my hard drive doing feck all. Enjoy!

Waste Not, Want Not

Josh and I were brought up under the 'you kill it, you cook it' mantra. It is vitally important that in our increasingly wasteful society, animals are not seen as commodities but rather beings that provide us an important service.

We have done a bit of small game hunting in the past few days, with possums, rabbits, hares and goats being the quarry. None of these animals have gone to waste. The possums are promptly plucked for their fur to be sold as well as providing food for the dogs. The rabbits and hares were eaten by us, as were the goats. Josh also skinned a goat and is currently in the process of tanning it.

The boys plucking one of the several unlucky possums

Personally and I know that Josh feels the same way, trophy hunting or killing big fish doesn't really sit right with us. I don't know whether is the way we were raised but we would sooner have a nice fat spiker or hind or a 4 pound hen trout than a massive stag or 10lb jack to be mounted. There is something really majestic about an animal at the apex of its species and it doesn't seem quite right to take it just because you can.

Josh's cousin Will with a well earned bowhunted goat

With all animals (fish included) it is also important to only harvest what you need and we could all at times give a little more respect and empathy to our animal friends. This also ensures that our resources are protected for future generations and if our children and their children get the same message, they will be able to responsibly enjoy the spoils of nature as we have for many years to come.

Josh's Dad is a butcher by trade, so Josh knows a thing or two about cutting stuff up

Sorry to get a little bit preachy, its just that some folks out there give the vast majority of hunter-gatherers that are responsible a bit of a bad name.

On a less serious note, the lads up at Manic have found a way to use this average weather to make informative videos...